Overview: Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the basic entrepreneurial system overlaid in 1981-89 by a socialist system that enlarged the public sector from 55% of GDP in 1981 to about 70% in 1989. Since then, the public sector has been reduced to about 60% of GDP. Tourism continues as a major source of foreign exchange, and agriculture is self-sufficient except for meat, dairy products, and animal feedstuffs. Over the last decade, real GDP growth has averaged 1.6% a year, compared with the European Union average of 2.2%. Inflation is four times the EU average, and the national debt has reached 140% of GDP, the highest in the EU. Prime Minister PAPANDREOU will probably only make limited progress correcting the economy's problems of high inflation, large budget deficit, and decaying infrastructure. His economic program suggests that although he will shun his expansionary policies of the 1980s, he will avoid tough measures needed to slow inflation or reduce the state's role in the economy. He has limited the previous government's privatization plans, for example, and has called for generous welfare spending and real wage increases. In 1994, the GDP growth rate is likely to remain low, and inflation probably will accelerate, remaining the highest in the EU. PAPANDREOU'S failure to improve the country's economic performance will further strain relations with the EU. Since Greece's accession to the then EC in 1981, Athens' heavy reliance on EU aid - amounting to about 6% of Greek GDP annually - and its poor use of Union funds have riled Brussels. Its ailing economy will continue to be a drag on European economic and monetary union.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $93.2 billion (1993)

National product real growth rate: 1% (1993)

National product per capita: $8,900 (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 14.4% (1993)

Unemployment rate: 9.5% (1993)

Budget:
revenues: $28.3 billion
expenditures: $37.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $5.2 billion (1994)

Exports: $6 billion (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities: manufactured goods 53%, foodstuffs 34%, fuels 5%
partners: Germany 23%, Italy 18%, France 7%, UK 7%, US 4% (1992)

Imports: $23.3 billion (c.i.f., 1992)
commodities: manufactured goods 72%, foodstuffs 15%, fuels 10%
partners: Germany 20%, Italy 14%, France 8%, Netherlands 7%, Japan 6% (1992)

External debt: $23.1 billion (1992)

Industrial production: growth rate -1.3% (1992); accounts for 20% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 10,500,000 kW
production: 36.4 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 3,610 kWh (1992)

Industries: food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals, metal products, tourism, mining, petroleum

Agriculture: including fishing and forestry, accounts for 15% of GDP and 24% of the labor force; principal products - wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives, tomatoes, wine, tobacco, potatoes; self-sufficient in food except meat, dairy products, and animal feedstuffs

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis and limited opium; mostly for domestic production; serves as a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis and heroin from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and precursor chemicals to the East; transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-81), $525 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $1.39 billion

Currency: 1 drachma (Dr) = 100 lepta
Exchange rates: drachmae (Dr) per US$1 - 250.28 (January 1994), 229.26 (1993), 190.62 (1992), 182.27 (1991), 158.51 (1990), 162.42 (1989)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Greece on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Greece Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Greece Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.